


Magic Has Its Ups & Downs

by wildheartsneverdie



Series: AU August [3]
Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: AU August, Alternate Universe - Magic School, Crushes, Fluff, M/M, Morosexual Lio Fotia, just a generic magic school, mentions of Kray
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:01:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25812490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wildheartsneverdie/pseuds/wildheartsneverdie
Summary: Lio Fotia does not have a thing for the boy who keeps blowing up his cauldron in potions class.
Relationships: Lio Fotia/Galo Thymos
Series: AU August [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1861510
Comments: 14
Kudos: 88





	Magic Has Its Ups & Downs

**Author's Note:**

> The prompt for this AU August entry is Magic School. Witch is a gender neutral term here.

Lio tilted his potions textbook to hide the slip of paper with handwritten instructions on it. The handwriting looped with hearts over the i’s and did not belong to him. He pulled a sprig of mint from the scattered ingredients on his shared desk and dropped it into his cauldron.

Gueira leaned closer. “What’re you up to, Lio?”

“Nothing.” Lio muttered.

“Illicit potions making.” Meis leaned in from the other side.

“What kind of middle school girl handwriting is that?” Gueira pointed toward the slip of paper.

“It’s nothing.” Lio snapped under his breath. Potions instructor Professor Willow raised an eyebrow at the three of them. “Stop talking to me. You’re drawing attention.”

“Is it a loooove potion?” Gueira asked.

“No.” Lio sprinkled in a bit of powdered toadstool.

A loud boom interrupted their conversation.

Off to the side of the classroom, Galo coughed, his face covered in soot. “Sorry, Professor.”

Lio hid his laughter behind his hand.

“Mr. Thymos! That’s the second time this week you’ve exploded your cauldron.” Professor Willow scolded. “Remember the mantra of a potions master. ‘Measure twice, add once’!”

“Ugh, you’re doing that thing where you bite your lip while watching Galo be an idiot.” Meis observed.

“Shut up. I am not.” Lio took advantage of the distraction to fill a vial up with his potion, then whisked the evidence away with his wand.

***

“Okay, keep your head over the sink.” Meis shook up the vial of potion Lio had smuggled out of class. It glowed faintly green.

“This isn’t the most comfortable position.” Lio commented with his head craned over the sink.

Meis was unmoved by Lio’s complaints. “You’re the one that wanted to do this. Hold still.” Carefully, Meis upended the vial over Lio’s head and worked the goo into his hair. “Smells like mint.”

“It’s my mom’s old recipe.”

Meis worked the goo into Lio’s hair, massaging his scalp. Honestly, if he wasn’t bent over the sink in the boy’s bathroom, this would have been relaxing.

“Now about that boy.” Gueira, who was on look out, said from the door.

“What boy?” Lio asked warily.

“The rooster boy!”

“Galo?”

“Galo…” Meis and Gueira sighed dramatically in unison.

“I don’t have a thing for him!”

Using his elbow on Lio’s shoulder, Meis nudged Lio back down over the sink. “Dude, you’re getting drips everywhere.”

In a calmer voice, Lio continued. “I don’t have a thing for him.”

“Uh-huh.” Meis agreed sarcastically.

“Sure thing, boss. Whatever you say, boss.” Gueira commented as he cracked the bathroom door open to glance outside. “You gaze at him from across the room because you don’t have a thing for him.”

Lio glared at the sink, but held his tongue. Anything he’d say now would only put fuel on the fire. Galo’s antics were a little funny. His enthusiasm was contagious in a weird way. Plus, his entire upper body had been sculpted by a higher power. But that didn’t mean he had a thing for Galo!

“Rinse.” Meis used his wand to redirect the flow of water from the sink over Lio’s head, rinsing the green goo off. Once he was satisfied that Lio was sufficiently clean, he blasted warm air over Lio’s head until his hair was dry-ish. A full service dye job from Meis. 

Lio straightened up and checked out his new hair color in the bathroom mirror.

“Is that the color it’s supposed to be?” Gueira asked skeptically.

Lio grinned, running his fingers through the pale green strands. “I love it.”

***

Angrily, Lio scrubbed at cauldrons in the back of Professor Willow’s classroom. This would have been easy with magic, but then this wouldn’t be detention, would it? Detention given to him by Professor Foresight for using an unsanctioned potions recipe to dye his hair green (and maybe for mouthing off at Foresight). 

Galo’s earlier potions accident was much less funny now that he had to clean up filthy cauldrons.

The classroom door opened and Lio turned, expecting to see Foresight come to lecture him, but instead saw Galo Thymos with a frog on his shoulder. “Lio!” Galo brightened when he saw the smaller student. “You didn’t lose a frog, did you?”

“No.” Lio shook his head. 

“Don’t worry George, I’ll find your witch.” Galo reassured the frog. “I’m calling him George for now.” Carefully, Galo set the frog down on a desk where it hunkered down and glared at Lio. “Want any help?”

“This is supposed to teach me a lesson.” Lio sighed.

“Cool. Then it can teach you a lesson about teamwork.” Galo stood next to Lio at the sink, close enough that their arms were touching. Butterflies erupted in Lio’s stomach. Grinning, Galo pulled his wand out. “You give ‘em a scrub and I’ll take care of the rest.”

Fuck Foresight and this stupid detention. “Sure.”

In short order, the rest of the cauldrons were cleaned and set out to dry. Galo stepped back to survey his handiwork. “Hey, you’re pretty smart, right?”

Lio shrugged. “I get good grades.”

“You, uh, wanna help me with one of my classes? Please?” Galo gave Lio blue puppy dog eyes. “I’ll pay you back!”

Lio bit his lip. He couldn’t say no.

***

Lio passed a broom to Galo who took it reluctantly. Geez, no wonder he was struggling in his flying classes. “You’re from a mundane family, right?”

“Yeah. Why?” Galo asked.

“The broom knows when you’re scared of it.” Lio easily took up a sitting position astride his broom, not kicking off yet.

“I am not scared!” Galo protested, his eyebrows furrowing (cutely) with anger. 

Lio repressed a smile. He had to be a good teacher or Galo would fail his flight class and would have to wait until next year to get his broomstick license. “Show me what happens when you try to fly.”

Galo mounted his broom with a sour look, then hopped into the air. The broom hovered for a few yards before slowly drifting back down to earth. 

“That’s— not good.” Lio observed.

“I’ve been looking forward to flying class since I started at this school!” Galo exclaimed. “But I fell off a couple weeks into the semester and… Well, you see! It’s been like that since!”

“One. You have to loosen your grip. You’re choking your broom.” Lio took hold of Galo’s hands and repositioned them on the broom. Galo’s hands were big. When he looked up, Galo’s cheeks were flushed.

“Got- got it!” Galo stared determinedly over Lio’s head.

“Two. Maybe your happy thought isn’t happy enough to overcome your,um, challenges.” Lio moved his hands back to his own broom, feeling a flush in his own cheeks. “Have you tried a different happy thought? Does it make you feel lighter when you think of it?”

“It’s the last birthday party I had before my parents died. They got me an ice cream cake and my best friends came over and then we went roller skating.” 

Lio nodded. He was beginning to understand the problem. That may have been a happy memory, but it could only be mixed with sadness as well. No wonder he couldn’t overcome his not-fear of flying.

An idea occurred to him. If Galo could face his not-fear of flying, then Lio could do something about his not-crush on Galo. “Galo.”

“What is it, teach?”

Lio leaned over and kissed Galo on the cheek. “I think you’re cute.”

Like a rocket, Galo immediately shot into the air. “YES! I’M CUTE!!”

With a smile, Lio kicked off from the ground. “I didn’t think the effect would be that dramatic.”

Galo laughed, swinging around to fly next to Lio. “I kinda asked you out here as an excuse to see if you’d like to go get coffee with me sometime. So, you down? To get coffee?”

“I’d like that.”

Galo’s broom shot off again, launching him headfirst into a tree.

Lio raced after him. “Galo!”

He stuck his head out and spit out a mouthful of leaves. “How does Friday sound?”

“You idiot.” Laughter escaped Lio’s lips.

“Yeah! World’s #1 cutest witching idiot!”

**Author's Note:**

> Lio’s familiar is definitely a cat.


End file.
